And other tax resisters across the country have been fielding requests from
various branches of the news media — mostly print and radio. It’s “Tax Day in
July” for the war tax resistance movement, which usually doesn’t get this kind
of attention outside of mid-April.

The CommonDreams News Centerreprinted the
article on their site, and this has attracted many comments from their
left-leaning readership debating the tactic of tax resistance. For instance,
“cvan” writes:

For tax non-payment as a form of protest to work, it must be done
en masse. I would commit to such action if it could be
organized and thousands or millions of us rose up in protest together.

This is encouraging, since
NWTRCC
is hoping to get some momentum behind just such an organized campaign.

Meanwhile, James Taranto, who commands, I hear, at least one of the nine
circles of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page
hell, weighs in with
a Randy reference.
And Michael Patton follows that cue at the
Issues & Opinions
blog — sure that I’ve miscalculated by breaking out of deep cover to reveal my
tax resistance secret in the press: “this particular non-Rhodes Scholar
allowed the AP
to write a story about him evading taxes. Nothing like calling out the
IRS by
name to get them to leave you alone.”

A frequent challenge to conscientious tax resisters whose resistance leads to
fines and penalties is “won’t the government just end up with more in the end?”

Here’s how Gandhi answered this objection
eighty-seven years ago today:

All the readers of Young India may not know that
Ahmedabad came under a heavy fine for the misdeeds of the
April of last year.
The fine was collected from the residents of Ahmedabad but some were exempted
at the discretion of the collector. Among those who were called upon to pay
the fines were income-tax payers. They had to pay a third of the tax by them.
Mr.V.J. Patel, noted barrister,
and Dr. Kanuga, a leading
medical practitioner, were among those who were unable to pay. They had
admittedly helped the authorities to quell disturbance. No doubt they were
satyagrahis but they
had endeavoured to still the mob fury even at some risk to their own persons.
But the authorities would not exempt them. It was a difficult thing for them
to use discretion in individual cases. It was equally difficult for these
two gentlemen to pay any fine when they were not to blame at all. They did
not wish to embarrass the authorities and yet they were anxious to preserve
their self-respect. They carried on no agitation but simply notified their
inability to pay the fines in the circumstances set forth above. Therefore
an attachment was issued. Dr.
Kanuga is a very busy practitioner and his box is always full. The watchful
attaching official attached his cash box and extracted enough money to
discharge the writ of execution. A lawyer’s business cannot be conducted on
these lines. Mr. Patel sported no cash box. A
sofa of his sitting-room was therefore attached and advertised for sale and
duly sold. Both these satyagrahis thus completely saved their consciences.

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